Creative solutions from Lexus, USG Corp. and Teleflora

Situation
Luxury car manufacturer Lexus wanted to create buzz for the North America launch of its new high-performance sedan, the IS F. It was especially looking for an effective way to reach affluent sports car enthusiasts with an excit­ing message about the vehicle.

Approach
Lexus tapped agency Attik to create a microsite, www.lexus.com/isf, which had a soft launch in October. Lexus promoted the site via pre-launch print ads in auto-enthu­siast publications available at November's 2007 Specialty Equipment Market Association Show in Las Vegas, as well as in signage used throughout the show. All of the collat­eral featured the tagline, “What is F?”

Coinciding with the site's official launch in February, Attik released a series of 15-second in-cinema commercials on more than 13,000 screens nationwide that showed the car in action. Viewers were directed to the microsite's URL for more information. The launch effort also included online advertising, outdoor billboards and dealer assets.

“The audience is potentially likely to have DVRs and hold back from watching commercials,” says Simon Need­ham, Attik co-founder and creative director. “We wanted a captured audience, not distracted by anything else,” he says of the in-cinema ads.

Results
As of press time, Attik reported 11 million views. Search marketing drove about 70% of those views. -Nathan Golia

USG CorpTargeted e-mail list drives clickthroughs

Approach
To build awareness among tile and flooring contractors, USG Corp. worked with HSR Business to Business last year on a multitouch campaign that included e-mail, trade magazine ads, online ads, a microsite and a sweepstakes. An e-mail purchased from Reed Business helped find the target audience.

Results
The e-mail blast had a clickthrough rate of more than 5% and more than 10,000 people registered for the sweepstakes through January. -Chantal Todé

TelefloraMoms get virtual nod

Approach
Teleflora and DMi Partners launched the “America's favorite mom” campaign in February. Online banner and flash ads drove consumers to a microsite where they could submit “mominations.” The campaign targeted women age 25-54.

Results
By late April, 150,000 clickthroughs, 5,000 nominations and 23,000 votes were recorded from the ads. -Mary Hurn

Privateview Karen Dobbs
Senior creative director, Epsilon

How do you sell a luxury hotrod like the Lexus IS F? Create an adrenaline-infused e-campaign like this one. The sound-enhanced ban­ner is irresistible; using the racing glove-clad finger pointer, you can shift up or down. On the landing page, blue flames appear while the copy unapologetically touts the F's credentials. Do you really need 371 lb.-ft. of torque when the price of gas is at an all-time high? If you're the affluent target for this $56,000-plus babe magnet, yes, you do.

This campaign for Ford pickups is quite effective. Oh, wait – it's actually from a flooring company. Subject lines are so important, and USG began on the right track, however, the preview pane is mostly truck. The copy does a good job drawing a parallel between product and promotion. However, this copy block will have a better chance of being read if it's broken up into bul­lets. Overall, the space could have been used more effectively.

Teleflora's “America's favorite mom” sweepstakes is a contest to nominate your mom for money and a TV coronation, but the sweeps serves as more than a data-gather­ing channel. Each mom has a “Help my mom win” widget, which can be posted to a MySpace page, blog or Web site to drive voters to the nomi­nation page. Behold, the power of viral marketing. Genius! Creatively, I wish the graphics were a little less Valentine's Day, and the landing page could work harder to provide clear direction.